POLICE CONFISCATE EXCESS MARIJUANA

Drug enforcement officers raided the home and garden of a medical
marijuana grower this week and seized two guns and 20 pounds of
harvested marijuana, a police spokeswoman said Thursday.

The grower, Sharon Place, wasn't home at the time of the raid and has
not been charged with any crime.

The Oregon Medical Marijuana Act allows a medical marijuana cardholder
to grow three mature, or budding plants, and four immature plants at a
time. Three ounces of dried marijuana is the legal limit.

Place grows medical marijuana for herself, her two teen-age sons and
another cardholder.

The Interagency Narcotics Enforcement Team searched Place's McKenzie
River Highway property Tuesday morning, police spokeswoman Jan Power
said.

Officers found Place's sons, ages 15 and 18, home alone, and about 20
pounds of harvested bud marijuana in varying stages of drying, Power
said.

They seized most of the drying bud and left some plants behind, she
said. INET reported leaving 12 ounces of dried marijuana, six grown
plants and the trunks of several 6- to 8-foot plants that had been
harvested, Power said.

"She was left with the legal amounts her medical marijuana card allows
her to grow and have," she said.

But Place said some of what police left behind is worthless for
medicinal purposes - leaves and branches that don't carry the drug THC
like the buds of the plant. "At least half of what they left was
unusable stuff," she said.

Place said police previously checked on her garden this season and
told her she was acting within the law. "I just felt really
assaulted," she said. "They'd been out there twice, checked things out
and said everything was fine."

A year ago, Place also lost her supply of medical marijuana when four
armed men wearing masks broke into her Eugene-area home, held her two
sons at gunpoint and stole her medical marijuana plants.

Place said it's hard not to have an excess when you grow marijuana
year-round. As with other crops, growers plant more than needed,
expecting some of the crop to fail.

She'd like to provide any extra marijuana to other cardholders who
need it, she said.

"There's nothing in the law that allows you to, when you're
harvesting, say, 'OK, I have extra and what do I do with it.' " she
said. "It's new to everyone. It's new to me."